Date:09/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/09/stories/2007060915230300.htm

Kerala - Alappuzha

Smart City pact: CMP seeks judicial probe

Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA: Communist Marxist Party (CMP) leader M.V. Raghavan has demanded a judicial inquiry into the Smart City pact and the visit of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan's son Arun Kumar to Dubai just before the pact was signed.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Raghavan alleged that there was "something mysterious" in the way Mr. Kumar had visited Dubai just after the Cabinet decision on Smarty City on April 25 and before the signing of the pact on May 13.

Moreover, the LDF Government signed the agreement not with TECOM, which was a State-owned company with whom the UDF had discussed the venture, but with TECOM Investment Free Zone, a limited liability company (LLC), which was not registered as per the Company Act, he said.

If Mr. Achuthanandan believed that his son and the Government were not involved in any shady deals regarding the signing of the pact, Mr. Raghavan said a judicial enquiry would clear the doubts that had arose in the mind of the public after the recent controversy over the issue.

CMP secretary C.P. John said the LLC with which the Kerala Government signed the agreement was "just an upgraded firm".